The game industry as a whole has had a volatile year of ups and downs, but one of the few constants has been the Xbox 360's presence at the top of the console hardware charts.

　　Will the Xbox 360's continued success postpone the arrival of its successor? Following yesterday's release of The NPD Group's monthly US retail sales data, Microsoft revealed that it sold 426,000 Xbox 360s in February. That makes 14 straight months in the number-one console sales position for the system.

　　Nintendo chimed in with its own numbers, noting that the Wii managed to move 228,000 systems, while the 3DS added another 262,000 to its US installed base. The Mario maker also saw some new milestones reached, with Super Mario Galaxy hitting the 5-million-sold mark, and Pokemon Black and White combining for lifetime sales of 4 million.

　　Sony released its own statement after the NPD release, but did not disclose any of its US sales figures for the month. In lieu of numbers, Sony said that the PlayStation Vita "saw overwhelming enthusiasm amongst gamers, resulting in exceptional hardware, software, and peripheral sales."